YouTube has rolled out a comprehensive redesign across its Android and iOS apps, as announced last week, bringing a fresh look and feel to the video-sharing platform with version 20.42.
The update introduces a new set of icons throughout the application, including the top and bottom bars and the video page, with bolder and more rounded outlines to enhance visibility. The redesigned icons are part of a broader effort to modernize the user interface.
The most significant changes are centered around the video player, with the goal of minimizing the obstruction of video content. In portrait mode, the new interface features the updated icon set, a larger landscape button enclosed in a circle, and revamped controls for Premium users. Additionally, the like and dislike buttons have been redesigned with a longer thumb design. When users like specific videos, a custom, dynamic visual treatment is triggered based on the content, such as an animated musical note for music videos or a visual cue from the game for sports videos.
The landscape player has also undergone changes, with a pill-shaped container in the bottom-left corner now housing the thumbs up/down, comment, save, share, and overflow buttons. This area also includes a cleaner “More videos” button. Furthermore, the background is no longer darkened when a video is paused, creating a more seamless viewing experience.
Other notable updates include a more subtle and compact animation for the double-tap to skip function, designed to be less intrusive to the video-watching experience. The transition between tabs now features a smoother animation that slides the feed up. The process of saving videos to playlists or Watch Later has been simplified with a refreshed design, and comment threading has been enhanced to make conversations and replies easier to follow.
To experience the redesign, users may need to force stop and relaunch the app.
